Dolly Parton Just Misses Top Ten Albums; Still Gets First Country Number One in Quarter Century

When the final numbers came in, Dolly Parton failed to score the second solo top ten of her career by the slimmest of margins. Pure and Simple debuts this week at number 11.

Only 2014's Blue Smoke cracked the Billboard 200 top ten during Parton's career, although the album Trio by Parton, Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris did make that level.

Pure and Simple is the both the number 1 Country and Americana/Folk Album of the week. On the country side, it is her sixth solo number 1. Her last was 1991's When the Eagle Flies.

The only other debut by a veteran artist is all the way down at 193 with Jerry Garcia's GarciaLive, Volume 7: November 8th, 1976, Sophie's, Palo Alto.

The Eagles' Their Greatest Hits 1971 - 1975 has surged from 82 to 35 this week and, in the process, also taken over the number 1 spot on the Catalog Albums chart. It is the second biggest selling album in U.S. history behind only Michael Jackson's Thriller.

Expect a resurgence of Juan Gabriel albums on the chart next week in the wake of his death.

On the Singles side, Green Day's Bang Bang has hit the top of the Mainstream Rock Songs and Justin Timberlake's Can't Fight This Feeling remains on the top of Adult Contemporary even though it fell out of the top ten on the Hot 100 this week.

The top forty albums this week by veteran artists who have been recording twenty years or more (Billboard 200 position in parenthesis) Debuts are in blue:

Pure and Simple - Dolly Parton (11)

Their Greatest Hits 1971 - 1975 - Eagles (35)

California - Blink-182 (45)

Unleashed - Skillet (46)

Ripcord - Keith Urban (53)

The Eminem Show - Eminem (60)

Greatest Hits - The Notorious B.I.G. (68)

Greatest Hits - Journey (80)

Metallica - Metallica (82)

Greatest Hits - Fleetwood Mac (85)

Greatest Hits I, II & III - The Platinum Collection - Queen (87)

Nevermind - Nirvana (92)

The Getaway - Red Hot Chili Peppers (100)

Curtain Call: The Hits - Eminem (101)

Legend - Bob Marley & the Wailers (102)

The Essential Michael Jackson - Michael Jackson (103)

Greatest Hits - Guns N' Roses (107)

Weezer (White Album) - Weezer (117)

1 - Beatles (129)

Greatest Hits - 2Pac (134)

The Marshall Mathers LP 2 - Eminem (137)

The Very Best of Prince - Prince (138)

Recovery - Eminem (145)

The Best of Pantera: Far Beyond the Great Southern Cowboy's Vulgar Hits! - Pantera